My First Broadband Hamnet Mesh Node – VE1XT-N01

I’ve always hated the wait between the time I order something on eBay and when it is received. I’m quite impatient. None-the-less, today I received my Linksys WRT54G v2 router that I ordered last week on eBay.

These evening I have been busy setting up the mesh node and playing around with the configuration. I am hoping this is going to be the first of a few nodes locally. I have another friend (and operator) who is interested and happens to have a compatible router. My next step is to get that from him and set up the firmware on it. I’ve also mentioned this little project to the folks at the radio club and a couple others have also expressed interest.

I was surprised at how easy the installation process was. Since the router already had dd-wrt installed, I was able to simply download and apply the BBHN firmware just as if I was updating the existing OS. After that it was as simple as logging in, changing the password, and setting a node name.

After I am able to get a couple of nodes running locally, in my house, I will likely be looking for a couple of 2.4 GHz Yagi antennas to install on my new tower when it goes up. This way I should be able to get much great distance by going over the treeline. I’m no RF expert but from what I am told 2.4 Ghz is very fussy when it comes to obstructions. I guess that is was a lot of corporate wireless broadband providers will use frequencies in the 900 MHz range.

Anyway, I’ll post further updates when I have more nodes up and running. If you are interested in running a node check out the Broadband Hamnet website. There you can also find a printable hardware compatibility list that you can use when you are out shopping.